Ronald Bussink of Switzerland designed this "London Eye" of Cape Town. It is being erected at the N1 entrance to the Waterfront. These photo's were taken today of the Big Wheel. It looked like a giant Pac-Man biting Cape Town. At about 13h35 I arrived back and the circumference was complete. I will try post daily pics of the progress during the last 10 days until the World Cup kick-off. I will refer to our resident Ferris wheel as "wheel" throughout this post.
IOLTravel.co.za released pertinent details of the "big wheel" that I found most informative. The wheel will remain here for 6 months under a contract approved by the city. It is approximately 60m high, in comparison to the London Eye which is 135m in height. The
cost will be about R70.00 a ride. Each ride lasts ±20 minutes with panoramic views of Table Mountain, Robben Island, Cape Town Stadium and the Paarl Mountains. Various pricing packages for families etc will be available.
On the right is what the completed wheel should look like, at night.
"The wheel has 36 enclosed air-conditioned capsules holding eight people. Each trip accommodates 288 people. Running daily from 10am until 10pm (with the possibility of extending running hours until midnight), the wheel could accommodate 15 000 riders a day. At night it is lit up by 2 million LED lights, which consume only two kilowatts of energy an hour."